SA’S BIGGEST GAMING EVENT A RAGING SUCCESS

Since its inception in 2002, the really AWESOME gaming expo ( rAge) has enjoyed organic growth both in the number of exhibitors and attendees, and exposes the ever growing gaming community to the latest technological developments, new and pre-released games, the hottest consoles, IT sector learning opportunities and much more. A testament to the event’s popularity and the substantial growth in gaming as a whole, rAge experienced its highest numbers ever; with 20,541 visitors during the 3-day event from 01-03 October at the Coca Cola Dome in Johannesburg.

On everyone’s lips this year was the NAG LAN @ rAge Guinness World Record attempt for the longest non-stop BYOC LAN. The NAG LAN has been a highlight on the SA gaming calendar for 8 years; starting off with a mere 200 players, this year saw 2,080 hardcore gamers (and some n00bs) battle it out for an entire weekend. Whilst the organisers wait for the final decision from the Guinness World Record adjudicators, there is a sense of accomplishment as the 40-hour record held by Cyber Fusion 2009 in Cyberjaya Malaysia was smashed by the NAG LAN gamers’ 51-hour marathon; during which there was no less than 1000 gamers on the network gaming at all times. HP Networking, sponsors of the R2million network that serviced the NAG LAN this year, recorded a whopping total of 520 terabytes of data traffic.

Gamers simply could not get enough of the almost endless list of new titles and pre-release codes for a little“control-on” testing. Other highlights included the launch of the PlayStation 3 Move; which has now permeated homes across the country with its life-like motion sensing gaming experience and oh-so addictive games. Xbox Kinect was also revealed to gamers with its mindboggling control-less gaming which visitors had the opportunity to trial prior to the official release in November 2010. Overclocking experiments by Frontosa and ASUS came within a few MHz of the world record for the AMD Phenom 970 processor.

Apart from the highly entertaining exhibition matches performed by XFC professional MMA cage fighters (to promote their latest EA Sports MMA game)– EA Games gave visitors the opportunity to hash out any disagreements whilst locked in a cage and heavily padded in sumo suits. Those who did not resort to a push and fall fight to resolve debates (domestic and other) definitely enjoyed the hilarity of watching those that did.

Overall, exhibitors expressed agreement about the success of the event and its annual growth as Gustavo Correa of Learn 3D, a 3D animation learning institution based in Johannesburg, encapsulates;“Having been part of it ( rAge) for the last 7 years, I can clearly see its growth, and this year was no exception: Friday felt like Saturday, and Sunday’s vibe remained up to the very end. I have no doubt that the rAge Expo is the best exposure I can get for my courses, and hopefully I will be able to carry on being part of it, and contributing to its success as well as benefitting from it!”

Big industry players at rAge such as PlayStation echoed this sentiment;“The consumers were very excited to experience all the new games before they have launched in the country, GT5, PES 2011, WWE, WRC and Move The Fight. Our stand was constantly busy, consumers enquiring when the games would be available for sale. The GT5 driving simulators were in great demand. Overall a fantastic expo!” said Jacqui Scott from Ster Kinekor, managing local PlayStation marketing.

Michael James, Project Manager of rAge was elated with the success of this year’s expo;“We started the rAge event as an elaborate marketing exercise for NAG magazine and somehow have managed to grow the expo into the beast that it is today. Thanks to the support of our exhibitors and the gaming community as a whole, we have not only met the needs of the growing gaming culture in South Africa but have become an institution within it.”

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